Plum Cake

Sometimes, even though it’s summer, it’s chilly and rains. So you compromise by having a big, summery salad for dinner and an autumnal plum cake for desert.

Plum cake (Pflaumen Kuchen) is really popular in Germany, and no wonder: you can get really good plums here. Use small, dark purple, Italian plums here.

This cake is yet another variation of the batter I used in the rhubarb muffins—this is rapidly becoming one of my favorite recipes because it’s so adaptable and it is always really high and light.

Plum Cake

3 cups all purpose flour
Scant 1 cup sugar
1 ¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground ginger
3 ¾ tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
1 2/3 cups plain soy yoghurt (preferably the unsweetened kind)
¼ cup oil
¾ cup unsweetened apple sauce
10-12 Italian plums

Crumb toping:
2 tbsp soy “butter”
½ cup flour
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon

Wash the plums, cut them in half, and set aside. Pre-heat the oven to 400 F. Cut the butter into the flour and sugar for the crumb toping, then set aside. Lightly grease a 9”x13” pan. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and using a rubber spatula, fold the wet ingredients in with a few swift strokes. Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Arrange the plum half, cut side down, in rows over the top of cake. Sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.